I haven't yet made the arroz con seitan or papusas because I had to leave town for a funeral, but upon my return I whipped up the tempeh asado and the spinach/avocado/tomato salad with creamy chile dressing. I wasn't sure the tempeh was going to be all that exciting but letting it sit overnight with the salad... delish. Awesome entree salad for summer.

got this book from home -and i wanted to make tortillas. I DO have shortening, but my best friend is allergic to soy, can shortening be swapped with coconut oil/canola oil, would the ratio be different?

I think the appeal of the shortening is that it's solid at room temp, so maayyybe the coconut oil, but probably not. Maybe margarine? I don't know if there's really a good sub. Is there not a vegetable shortening that's soy-free? Definitely don't use canola.

got this book from home -and i wanted to make tortillas. I DO have shortening, but my best friend is allergic to soy, can shortening be swapped with coconut oil/canola oil, would the ratio be different?

Spectrum makes soy-free vegetable shortening, if that's available where you are.

Preliminary tastes of the arroz con seitan are very very promising. However, I had to add quite a bit more broth/water combo than called for, as my mixture seemed to thick to get the rice cooked, especially in 35 min. My book says 1.5 cups of rice and 1.25 cups of water. Is that a typo? Anyway, I'm sure it'll be fine but I am just worried that the seitan will get too mushy, because of course I added the add'l liquid after it was already added.

Preliminary tastes of the arroz con seitan are very very promising. However, I had to add quite a bit more broth/water combo than called for, as my mixture seemed to thick to get the rice cooked, especially in 35 min. My book says 1.5 cups of rice and 1.25 cups of water. Is that a typo? Anyway, I'm sure it'll be fine but I am just worried that the seitan will get too mushy, because of course I added the add'l liquid after it was already added.

I made the recipe as-is, and the liquid ratio was fine. My rice was on the softer side, even. It had started to stick to the bottom of the pot by the end of the 35 minutes, but I was using a ceramic dutch oven, and everything wants to stick to that thing.

Hmm. I probably hosed another element up then. I'll pay closer attention next time with the knowledge the recipe should be good as-is. Regardless, I'll tell myself that the extra cooking time on low and slow maybe added a slow cookerish element to it, a good thing since there are a lot of elements and a lot of flavor. This was a make ahead meal for Monday since I'll be slammed at work, and I am dorkily excited for it.

got this book from home -and i wanted to make tortillas. I DO have shortening, but my best friend is allergic to soy, can shortening be swapped with coconut oil/canola oil, would the ratio be different?

Spectrum makes soy-free vegetable shortening, if that's available where you are.

Dinner tonight was the Arroz con Gandules (Rice with Pigeon Peas), along with some sautéed zucchini coins (tossed in oregano and Adobo seasoning), and pan-fried marinated tofu spears (pressed, marinated in orange/pineapple juice with poblano chile powder, and pan-fried till crispy on the outside, then drizzled with the simmered/reduced leftover marinade).

One of my FAVE dinners, ever. And my omni husband adored it, too. I really liked baking the rice, because I always seem to fall short of his ideal Mexican-style rice (his mom is famous for hers), and I'll usually get the taste but not the texture quite right. I actually didn't have all the time described in the recipe, so for the final 10 minutes, I baked it at 375° (it definitely needed the extra 5 minutes, for a full 45 minutes), and then I let it sit out covered just 10 minutes. Still came out fabulous.

My other tweak was that I have not found annatto oil anywhere, so I used regular oil, omitted the salt, and used some Goya Sazon (which is achiote-flavored seasoning) for the color, flavor and saltiness.

Super yummy! And pressed tofu never fails to impress. My husband could not get over how delicious it was - particularly in the same bite as a nice forkful of the rice, the citrusy marinade really complemented the rice.

Veganvamp, I found annatto at my one of the Mexican grocers nearby, and I kicked myself for paying something like 3.99 at WF when they were .69 there. Live and learn.

I have to say, this is my new fave book right now; its so perfect for summer. The papusas with Simple Latin Sauce were a big win in my house. Other recent successes were the sopes but I used the oyster mushroom arepas filling (because oyster mushrooms were something relatively crazy cheap like 5.99/lb at the Mexican grocer!!), the ancho chili dressing, the Salvadorian slaw, the orange mofo seitan, and I made the chile-lime marinated veggies with nopales (so good).

Just made the arroz con seitan tonight. It was delicious! I couldn't find annatto so I used saffron instead and my rice didn't cook fully so I had to add 1 more cup of water and cook an additional 10 minutes. I will definitely make again!

got this book from home -and i wanted to make tortillas. I DO have shortening, but my best friend is allergic to soy, can shortening be swapped with coconut oil/canola oil, would the ratio be different?

Yes, you can swap it! I always make this recipe with refined coconut oil. Same ratio, works perfectly!

My dinner tonight was shredded seitan, potatoes with cheezy sauce, and steamed kale. I didn't use a heavy cream substitute for the sauce, I just used unsweetened soy milk and I thought it was plenty creamy. It was good, but I wasn't feeling the boiled potatoes, I think I'm just not a huge potato person. The shredded seitan was delish! I'm looking forward to turning the leftovers into tacos tomorrow night.

_________________I like my bagels like I like my men - big and covered with earth balance & nooch. - Bunniee

Taco night will never be the same for me again. I made the seitan and potato tacos last night, and it was a total game changer. I just wish my omni husband would give seitan a shot. He has no idea what he's missing...

Whipped up a huge pot of Gallo Pinto for my visiting omni Mother-in-Law (who is Mexican, from Mexico, speaks significantly more Spanish than English). Used red chili beans I soaked and boiled + basmati rice. My husband agreed it's once of the best batches of GP I've made - and my MIL ADORED it. Served it with Aji Verde (So Good, So Green Sauce) + the liquidy/pre-cooked form of Miyoko's Camembert (which resembles a nice, thick Mexican crema.... I much prefer it in this state than the dried version!).

So good - this recipe never lets me down, and always impresses! I like to serve it with platanos usually, but mine weren't maduro enough just yet... <yum> I need to try more from this book, but GP is so easy, and I always have the ingredients. Made it so many times now that I don't even need the recipe.

Last week I made the anticuchos but used soy curls instead of seitan, and then just sauteed everything rather than grilling. It was SO GOOD. It's got me back on this cookbook hardcore, going through trying to pick out recipes I hadn't made yet. Tonight I did the cabbage and warm yuca salad with tofu chicharones and it was also a hit!

Last night/this morning I made Brazilian black beans, caraotas I think the name is. I'm really into slowcooking beans especially 'cause I don't find they need soaking, so I slowcooked a lb of black beans on low for around 9 hours while we were sleeping, then dumped in maybe more than a cup of sofrito I made last weekend and the rest of the ingredients, including the papelon YUM, continued on low for about 2 hours and the result is awesomeness! In addition to my kids devouring them at a few upcoming meals, they're going in some seitan burritos tonight, rice and bean lunches for next week, and who knows what else. Plus sofrito is a great use for all the CSA peppers and tomatoes I got, especially the peppers since I really really don't like to eat them on their own.

It's got me back on this cookbook hardcore, going through trying to pick out recipes I hadn't made yet.

Amen, I don't know why I haven't devoted myself to cooking thru this book, cover to cover - because everything is such a hit. I keep going back to Gallo Pinto with So Good/So Green every time I'm cooking for omni guests OR needing a surplus of food to get myself thru the week. Thanx for the reminder!

Has anyone successfully made the sopes? I tested them, and couldn't get the edges to stay up. I tried them again yesterday and this time I couldn't even form them at all. I ended up throwing it all away and using the filling in tacos instead.

I have made these (both fried and baked--of course the fried version was tastier), and I think I definitely could use some work on shaping them. My edges were kind of short and awkward--not as pretty as the picture in the book--the edged kind of looked like they were stuck on by a kindergartner, but they were good anyways and my husband and I ate them. Maybe there was not enough/too much moisture in the dough? It could be just that we need better directions/more practice for shaping them.

When I was making the pupusas from the book, I watched some videos on YouTube to help, since I was confused by the directions. (I'm definitely a visual person when it comes to this kind of thing.) I also noticed that as time goes by, I just get more comfortable with working with the corn dough. I've been eating gluten-free the past four years, and have not been using dough much, so it is nice to have the tortilla, pupusa, arepa and corn empanada recipes to get me working with my hands again. I think many of us who work with computers and papers all day miss out on that almost primal feeling of getting our hands dirty and making something nice out of it. Okay, personal cooking manifesto over. :) I think I will watch a video on how to shape sopes!